In a March 29 letter to his party's BET caucus, Marzullo called for the finance board to revisit its long-standing policy on committee representation.

His argument is that the 12-member body should be more like Congress and state legislatures, where minority parties get to choose ranking and regular committee members.

"Just because that has been accepted practice does not make it right," Marzullo said. "Nowhere is it of common practice, including the United States Congress, that the majority party chooses for the minority party who will be assigned where."

The finance board, charged with setting the town's tax rate, considering funding for hundreds of municipal projects and crafting the town budget, wields significant power in Greenwich's decentralized system of municipal government.

The chairmanship of the BET is controlled by Republicans, who garnered more votes as a slate than their Democratic counterparts in the 2011 municipal election.

The 12 seats on the board are divided evenly between the parties, with the chairman holding a tie-breaking vote.

Republican Michael Mason, who was elected by his colleagues to lead the board in January 2012, said he could not think of an instance when he did not follow the recommendations of the BET's Democratic caucus leader William Finger on committee assignments.

"What I've done in the past is I've always reached across the aisle to ask them who they would like to see on the particular committees," Mason said.

Mason added that he has tapped Democrats Mary Lee Kiernan and Jeffrey Ramer to serve as clerk of the full BET and chairman of the group's Law Committee, respectively.

"There's no broken system here," Mason said. "It's worked well. This is how the electorate has wanted it since 1921. Why is this problem up now?"

Marzullo said that the minority caucus leader shouldn't have to ask for permission to assign to Democratic committee seats, just as Republicans wouldn't want Democrats dictating assignments.

By allowing each caucus to determine committee assignments, Marzullo said that would afford members of the minority party due process in the event there is an attempt to strip them of their post.

"I wrote this email to my caucus to restart dialogue now and to engage our friends on the other side before the makeup potentially changes this November," said Marzullo, who is also seeking re-election. "I thought this would make for better dialogue and less contentious dialogue if this is done before an election season."

Finger, the current leader of the BET's Democratic caucus, echoed Mason on the committee assignments process.

"To my knowledge, in recent history, I believe that every recommendation that was made by the caucus leader was accepted by the chair of the BET," Finger said. "I don't know of one instance where the minority party's recommendations have not been adhered to. He didn't tell me, `This is who I want.' "

A message seeking comment was left for Sean Goldrick, a BET Democrat who is believed to support Marzullo's push to allow each party to determine its own committee assignments.

Mason said he has never tried to strip anyone of their committee assignment.

"I'm sure I have the authority as chairman to set committee assignments," Mason said. "If the day were to come where I thought the committee was being unproductive for some reason, it might be something to consider."

"Sounds like a Democratic selectman is looking for a problem where there isn't one," Campbell said of Marzullo. "I don't think you can fairly accuse Michael Mason of being anything other than a faithful bipartisan steward of the BET when it comes to appointing officers, committees and working the with the other side to make sure that everyone is as satisfied as possible with the assignments."